Something Else
by Aidan Notfilc
Summary: There is one kind of love, our love, that is something else, one of a kind, special. KakaSaku one shot.


A little something that popped into my head and I just had to write it out. Enjoy and please review. Even if you dont like it.

* * *

**Something Else**

There are all kinds of love in this world. Some I've experienced, some I've observed.

There's the strong, never wavering love for your country. The love that sends us shinobi out, ready to die to protect our city then brings us back to be fixed up and sent out again.

The respectful, awe inspiring love for your teacher, your sensei. The kind that drives you to please them, to make them proud.

Love for your teammates, comrades, and friends. A bond that grows stronger, tighter, over the years. You trust them with your life and they, in turn, trust you with theirs.

I've seen hot, fast, public displays of love from Ino and Sai.

Naruto and Hinata have the love of soul mates. Kindred spirits once again bound together in a world that can be cruel and violent. Always there to support each other.

I've even seen the love of an old married couple. Shikamaru and Temari argue and fuss and nag at each other all the time even though they're far from old. I don't see why they don't just tie the knot already.

Mothers love, puppy love, first love, forbidden love, true love. Like I said, all kinds of love.

But there is one kind of love, our love that is something else, one of a kind, special.

For those who don't know us, our relationship probably wouldn't seem like much. Two very close friends spending time together. But, if you look close enough, it's there. It's always there. In the way we give each other space but are almost always in calling distance. In the way he trusts me to go out with old drinking buddies and still come home to him and only him.

It's always been there though, the love, even though I haven't always noticed. It's been there in the way he was always there for me when my other friends were too busy with their life, a shoulder to lean on while I let out my frustration and grief about working in the hospital and I couldn't save someone.

He would hold me tight and secure and tell me I was doing all right. It's been there in the way he would always take time out from whatever he was doing and be my guinea pig for whatever new technique I'd learned. (He probably stole them too.) In the way he would put down his damn Icha Icha books and pay attention to what I was saying. He wouldn't do that for just anyone.

And soon I would notice all of that and I would catch the times he would be just _looking _at me for no real reason, just watching me with a certain expression in his eye. The way he would nonchalantly finger my hair and tell me how much he like it better long.

Whenever he came home from a mission or I returned from one or even after a long tiring day at the hospital, I came to recognize, expect, and crave his unmistakable, calm, comforting presence just outside my window as I slept. But for the life of me, I just couldn't fit the final piece in the puzzle.

But finally, I blinked and my eyes cleared, and I saw it. It was like stepping out of a too brightly lit Konoha for the first time and into the deep dark woods and really seeing the stars.

And it didn't matter that we had a former teacher student bond, or that he was fourteen years my senior or even that a small hidden part of me was, for whatever reason, still reluctant to let go of Sasuke. I had found _him_. I had found a lonely, broken, insecure man with a guarded heart who had, despite himself, dared to love again.

And he had dared to love me, a pink haired medic and kunoichi with a fiery temper who cared more about her friends then she did herself.

As soon as he knew that I knew he loved me, he bolted like a frightened rabbit. Avoided me for weeks like the terrible plague I once spent five months helping to contain and cure (I saw him everywhere I went for a while after that) until finally, I marched up to him, looked straight into his eye, pulled down his mask and kissed him.

He could have stopped me; he could have cut off the kiss and pulled his mask back up in that lightning quick way of his before anyone saw. He even could have teleported us to a more secluded area. But he didn't. Instead, he wrapped his arms around me as if he'd never let go and kissed me back desperate and fierce and terribly afraid it was all a dream. He kissed me back in the crowded marketplace with no mask for the entire world to see.

Although, you can ask anyone who saw us that day what his face looks like and they'll go all dreamy eyed and tell you he has a glowing angel face. My guess is that he's used one of his thousand plus jutsus on them, but who knows. His face really is perfect.

We almost didn't make it, you know.

I had been admitted in the hospital after a mission gone wrong. Mission complete but I was a bloody mangled mess, close to death. Me being a medic, it wasn't as bad as it could have been but one look at me and he freaked.

His kisses went from slow and sweet to brief and distracted. His missions got longer and more frequent. There was talk about going back to ANBU. He was trying to distance himself from me and that just wasn't going to happen. I was done being the 'supportive; let him work through his problems on his own', girlfriend. So I took matters into my own hands. In other words, I beat him to a bloody pulp, healed him and then threatened to do it again if he didn't get over whatever the hell was bothering him.

I've never seen him cry, but I could feel him tremble slightly as he lay on the couch with his head in my lap. Done with healing the last of his bruises, I ran my fingers through his silver hair: one strand for each Silver Star in the sky.

He looked up at me, both his eyes open, and made me a promise. A promise not to mess up this time and to be there for me each and every time I needed him. And then, he told me he loved me.

This was the first time he said it in so many words. This man, whose heart was broken too may times, had handed it to me, and what else is a medic to do but fix it? So I kissed him better. Well, senseless is more like it. I started with his forehead and his cheeks and his lips and, well, I'm sure you know how it went from there. Though, I won't lie, make-up sex with Kakashi is nothing short of amazing, but that's a story for girls night with Ino.

So, our feeble flame of love flared up again, quivering at first with apology, but eventually turning to bliss.

It didn't need all the public displays of affection most other couples' seemed to need. There was no kissing or hand holding or gooey eyes or arguing. No huge breakups then a day later back togethers.

Instead, we fed our flame with walking close enough to feel body heat but not actually touching, with sweet stolen kisses hello and goodbye, good morning and goodnight. We fed it with the almost flawless precision of reading each others moods, with comfortable talk at the dinner table over a home cooked meal, and with gentle reassuring caresses at night, reminding us of promises yet to be broken.

Our love is made of teamwork, respect, promises and trust. It is a love that is special, one of a kind, something else.


End file.
